Seattle-based private eye John Denson and his partner, an Indian shaman named Willie Prettybird, confront a man-made outbreak of anthrax in the Pacific Northwest that threatens to kill hundreds. Reprint.

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About the Author:

Richard Hoyt, a graduate of the University of Oregon, is a former fellow of the Washington Journalism Center and holds a Ph.D. in American studies from the University of Hawaii. He served as U.S. army counterintelligence agent, wrote for daily newspapers in Honolulu, and was a stringer for "Newsweek "magazine. He taught journalism at the University of Maryland and at Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Or. Hoyt is the author of the John Denson mysteries, the James Burlane thrillers and numerous other novels of adventure, espionage and suspense including two under the pseudonym of Nicholas van Pelt. In researching and writing in more than two dozen countries in Europe, Latin America, and Asia, he has ridden trains across the Soviet Union and riverboats down the Amazon. He now lives in the Philippines.

From Publishers Weekly:

Seattle PI John Denson (who never met a piece of bacon he didn't like) and his partner, Cowlitz Indian William Prettybird (who never met a mushroom he didn't like) find themselves in Enterprise, Ore., combatting an outbreak of anthrax, better known as hoof-and-mouth disease. They have been hired by the lawyer of Monty Hook, an outspoken anti-environmentalist rancher whose cattle have inexplicably become infected. Meanwhile, the odious Reverend Thaddeus Hamm Bonnerton, a right-wing preacher who spices his rants with environmentalist frenzy (e.g., proclaiming the hole in the ozone punishment for the sins of livestock farmers), is back in town for a revival meeting and for his high-school reunion. Cows die, people are murdered and Denson and Prettybird have to sort it all out?Denson employing the chat-and-chew method while Prettybird relies on hallucinogenic encounters with his beloved animal people. It's hard not to like the two detectives, and Hoyt (Red Card) is observant and funny writing from Denton's point of view. But, with a dearth of truly viable suspects, Hoyt needs either more satire or more suspense to carry his weak plot. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.